Sales last month of seven units from PS property deals in Warsaw have returned exceptional profits for investors.

Units in Majolikowa, Marina and Westland Court were sold in April through i-PropertyAssets and realised profits ranging between 99% and 181% over periods of 20 and 32 months.

*Sale price does not include commissions and legal fees
**Purchase price includes white finish, kitchen, parking and VAT
***Westland Court - £1=PLN5.6; Marina Mokotow/Majolikowa - &1=PLN6

Majolikowa and Marina exchanged in August/September 2005.
Westland Court exchanged in September 2006.

Polish property expert Stanislaw Staromlynski of iPropertyAssets said: "Four investors sold their apartments without leaving their homes as they took the full i-PropertyAssets service including legal representation by the estate agent, which also meant that they did not have to pay lawyers' fees.

"The two other investors also did not need to travel to Poland, but they were represented by their lawyers.

"It took us six weeks to find buyers and close transactions from the moment Polish buyers started to buy at the end of February 2008.

"Before we closed the sales there were several buyers who dropped out or offered prices definitely below the market price.

"None of the investors decided even to talk with those who made low offers, which was clearly a wise strategy.

"Firm negotiation positions were rewarded with good buyers offering market prices and we are delighted with the returns earned for our investors."

Head of i-PropertyAssets Oliver Watts said: "As a group i-PropertyAssets and Property Secrets have always believed in these markets and it's really only now that we are beginning to see the benefits of investing in Central & Eastern Europe as developments complete.

"Since we launched the resales service at the start of the year we've been very pleased with how it's gone and we anticipate an even better second half.

"Of course, we've always advocated the long term view and in today's market there is no better place to have your money - we've seen prices rise as proven by these sales and we firmly believe this will continue.

"From a personal point of view I'm very pleased to see the i-PropertyAssets services benefiting our clients in a very real and measurable way - both those who share our long term view and are using us for their letting and management and those who are using a shorter terms strategy and using our resales service."

Stanislaw continues: "We are not going to see the fantastic returns we have experienced in Poland for a while, I think. I'm referring here to returns of 30%, 50% and even 70% a year. The market needs to take a breather and we're not going to see strong growth again, I think, until around the second half of 2009.

"Even then we are not going to see the spectacular growth we have seen in the past; but on the plus side we are going to have a more mature and stable market, plus a more robust rental market.

"Supply is starting to fall and developers are consolidating, so there will come a point when lower supply coupled with greater affordability will drive up prices again - perhaps around 15% to 20% - which is still excellent growth, of course.

"If you bought in '06 or earlier, the option is obviously there to take good profits now. If you bought in 2007, then the strategy must be to hold and in the meantime take advantage of the strengthening rental market."

But while Stanislaw believes the days of stratospheric price growth in Poland have probably passed, there will, he forecasts, still be some locations that will show very strong returns indeed, probably in the 20% to 30% range.

"One of my favourite is Plock - here you have the largest oil refinery in Poland, salaries are good and the city is developing at a very high speed, and yet property prices here are only around PLN3,500 a square meter.

"A catch up is inevitable when you have prices between PLN3.5K and PLN4K psm. Another favourite is Katowice, which is really seven cities - people have always moved to this area for work and still do.

"In fact, just the other day the Gazeta Wyborcza daily newspaper reported some very interesting salary figures, which showed that the highest salaries are now actually outside Warsaw - the first time since 1989. Warsaw was actually in third place.

"The average monthly salary last year in Warsaw was PLN3805 a month, in Gdansk in was PLN3815 and in Katowice it was PLN3890!

"Katowice already had higher salaries than Warsaw in 2006 but now Gdansk is also higher as salaries went up there by 17% last year and they want up only 7% in Warsaw.

"The high ranking of Silesia (Katowice) is not surprising. The mining sector has always offered some of the best paid jobs. Salaries of miners went up by PLN650 and their salaries reached PLN4800 gross a month.

"The high ranking of Gdansk is due to a very low unemployment rate (3.3% vs 11% in the rest of the country) and due to a very well-developed small and medium size companies sector."

However, Stanislaw warns there are some locations that are currently priced very low, and will stay that way.

"I think there are cities along the eastern border - the old border with the Soviet Union, that are going to stay cheap for some time to come.

"Generally, though, the Polish market is going to be very interesting once again as we move into the latter part of 2009."

More of Stanislaw's expert analysis of the Polish property market here >>

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